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Photo courtesy of Flickr Commons |
While doing research for my next
book, I began to think about the causes of death in children and teens back in
the late 1800’s. What did they die of and
how does it compare to today. The result,
I must admit, is shocking. Whereas
homicide and suicide are in the top five causes of death for ages 10 to 24 in
America in 2010, they do not appear at all in the statistics from 1899-1900.
Here’s the breakdown:
1899-1900 Ages 5-14 2010 Ages 5-14
1 Childhood infectious diseases
|
Unintentional
injury
|
2 Respiratory infectious diseases
|
Malignant
neoplasms
|
3 Accident /Injury
|
Suicide (age
10-14);congenital anomalies (ages 5-9)
|
4 Heart Disease
|
Homicide
|
5 Tuberculosis
|
Heart disease
(age 5-9);congenital anomalies(ages 10-14)
|
1899-1900 Ages 15-24 2010 Ages 15-24
(Based on adult statistics)
1 Pneumonia
|
Unintentional
injury
|
2 Tuberculosis
|
Homicide
|
3 Gastrointestinal infectious diseases
|
Suicide
|
4 Heart disease
|
Malignant
neoplasms
|
5 Cerebrovascular disease
|
Heart Disease
|
Of course, with modern medicine’s
diagnostic tests, antibiotics and supportive care many of the deadly infectious
diseases of the past have been conquered. But there were plenty of guns around in the
nineteenth century and the means of suicide were always available. It is absolutely appalling that in America
today our children are dying of homicide and suicide. What has happened to us in the last 110
years?
For references and additional reading:
http://www.progenealogists.com/19thdeathrecords.htm
http://www.nber.org/chapters/c11541.pdf
http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/pdf/10LCID_All_Deaths_By_Age_Group_2010-a.pdf
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